Sea History 116 - Autumn 2006

Page 37

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Sir A.P. Herbert wrote in 1921 :

Thousands of Barnacles, small and great, Stick to the jolly old Ship of State; So we mustn't be cross if she seems to crawlIt's rather a marvel she goes at all. Not everyone dislikes yo u, though. For soups and chowders, chefs like

to

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boil you up, especially yo ur larger rela-

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tives that can grow almost as long as this sheet of paper or just as wide at their base. Shipwrecked mariners are over-

Scientists like

joyed to find barnacles to eat. The most famous example is after a whale smashed up the whaleship Essex in 1820 in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Some of the starving

umes on barnacles. US Coast Guard biologists can deter-

to

study you. Before C harles Darwin wro te

The Origin ofSpecies, he spent eight years writing four volmine how long a vessel has been at sea, based on the ac-

sailors survived in part by eating stalked barnacles growing

cumulation of barnacles on the hull, and marine ecologists

underneath their small boats. In Edgar Allan Poe's novel

study how ships deliver invasive barnacle species

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, shipwrecked sailors

around the world.

to

pons

survive by eating barnacles, and Thor H eyerdahl and his

Still want to be a barnacle? Before yo u decide, wait un-

crew enjoyed the barnacles beneath their raft Kon-Tiki on

til next issue where yo u'll read how men died for the sake of

their voyage across t)i.e Pacific. Japanese farmers have raised

the Sea C ucumber (no relation to the one in your salad).

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Sea History 116 - Autumn 2006 by National Maritime Historical Society & Sea History Magazine - Issuu